Lemons and Limes

[Darren Wright]

Last year I bought Dwarf lime and Meyer lemon trees from an on-line citrus nursery, one of each. During the coldest part of winter I moved them into the shop to keep them warm, and recently moved them back out to the greenhouse to get more light. Lately they have started growing blooms and yesterday the lemon blooms started to open up.

I've been buzzing around with a small paint brush pollenating them, in hopes of growing some lemon and limes this year.

The lime blooms


The lemon blooms

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Very cool. One of the few things I miss about living in California was having an everbearing lemon tree in the back yards of my last two houses. I have no idea what variety of lemon they were, but any time of the year if I needed a lemon for a recipe, I could just go out to the back yard and pick as many as I wanted. At the last house we also had an orange tree, and it definitely had growing and harvesting seasons, but the lemons were blooming and ripening year-round.

I've been buzzing around with a small paint brush pollenating them, in hopes of growing some lemon and limes this year.

Are you making bee noises when you are doing that? That part is very important. Fruit trees react to bee noises like women react to Barry White music.

 

[Jonathan Shively]

That's my problem, always thought it was Barry Manilow music!

 

[Darren Wright]

Got lots of little limes starting to form. I’m not sure what happened with the lemons, but most of the blooms fell off. Thinking it may have gotten too dry.

 

[Mike Stafford]

In the movie The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, urinates first thing every morning on his lemon tree. He believes that doing so will make the tree thrive and the lemons as good as they can be. When he leaves for America to try out his modified Indian motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats he charges the little boy, Tom, who lives next door to continue the practice in his absence.

Upon his return the little lemon tree is full of beautiful lemons.

I am not saying you should include this practice to get the most out of your trees and I am not saying you should not. But results are results.